I now have 3 compilers, what is best?

Hi guyd, I would like your say on somthing...

I have 3 compilers now:

Microsoft Visual Beta 2 2005 c++

Dev C++

Min GW Developer Studio C/C++

I quite like the latest one which is MinGw, but it looks a little dated
compared the the other ones...

Which one do you suggest I use, as they do the same job, but I don;t want to use one that goes out of date in the next year or so,,,

any help appriciated

I'd go with Dev-C++

none of them are compilers, however... Dev-C++ and (I'm guessing) MingW use the MingW port of GCC for their compiler...

As major said, these are IDEs, not compilers. You can do command-line compiling and use notepad as your 'ide', it works just fine, but there is a lot to be said for an integrated IDE. I like MS VC debugger a lot and it compiles fast and produced fast binaries and you can make ANSI C/C++ programs without any problems.

well, technically, notepad wouldn't be an IDE either... and "integrated IDE" is redundant...

an IDE typically includes everything you need to complete a program. in the case of C++, you'd need a compiler, linker, and text editor. neither one of them on their own is an IDE.

Well, I'd use a combination of Dev-C++ and MSVC++. Being a visual IDE, MSVC++ can be very useful for designing window and dialog layouts should you choose to go into Win32 Programming.

but MSVC++ sucks at least the beta does it dont got any good templates

I've been testing/using MinGW Developer Studio C/C++ for the past day, and I really like it.
It's AWESOME! It gives me millions of warnings, for example, it tells me when variables are unused and when comparing different types etc...

And it has Indentation Guides, and function code compact and expand (+ -) like VS.NET.

And my Favorite part is, the Win32API is completely documented. Lets say I type CreateWindow as soon as I hit "(" it pops up telling me all the arguments and what they are for ! AWESOME!

And debugger is very easy to use, also when I execute my app from MinGW Developer Studio, after my function returns it shows me what value was returned and pauses the screen.

I've been using Dev-Cpp for my tests/small programs because its quick and easy and is better looking than MC VC++.. I like how Dev-Cpp has more Syntax highlighting and how the error box is, than MS VC++. However I still make my bigger Projects in MS VC++ because its more corporately used and itd be best to get used to it.